Newtonsoft JSON .NET Nuget Nugget

Most API payloads are in XML or JSON; it is best to know both of these data structures, and how to serialize/deserialize them

The JSON parsing utilities found in Newtonsoft.Json are very. very useful and should be common knowledge for any .NET developer who works with API data or anything producing or derived from JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).

In general, to use Newtonsoft.Json you simply need to create a .NET class hierarchy that mimics the structure and hierarchy of the target JSON. Once that is setup, serializing in-memory objects to JSON and deserializing the JSON back to in-memory objects is a breeze.

You achieve this by normal class hierarchy and making List<> of child objects, array properties, etc. Newtonsoft's 'JsonProperty' class property decorator maps JSON properties and the builtin serialization and deserialization methods facilitate working between JSON strings and the in-memory objects they represent.

The C# source code below demonstrates serialization from a SQL Server 2017 SSRS API v2 JSON response and then serializing that object back into JSON.

Source Code:

 using System;  
 using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;  
 using Newtonsoft.Json;  
 using System.Collections.Generic;  
 using System.Net.Http;  
 using System.Threading.Tasks;  
 namespace DemoTests  
 {  
   [TestClass]  
   public class DemoTestJSON  
   {  
     [TestMethod]  
     public async Task TestDeserializeJSON()  
     {  
       HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler() { UseDefaultCredentials = true });  
       client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost/reports/api/v2.0/reports");  
       var response = await client.GetAsync(client.BaseAddress);  
       var deserial = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<APIGenericItemsResponse>(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());       
       TestSerializeJSON(deserial);  
       Assert.IsNotNull(deserial);  
     }  
     [TestMethod]  
     public void TestSerializeJSON(APIGenericItemsResponse genericObject)  
     {      
       string serial = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(genericObject);  
       Assert.IsNotNull(null);  
     }  
   }  
   public class APIGenericItemsResponse  
   {  
     [JsonProperty("@odata.context")]  
     public string Context { get; set; }  
     [JsonProperty("value")]  
     public List<GenericItem> GenericItem { get; set; }  
   }  
   public class GenericItem  
   {  
     [JsonProperty("Id")]  
     public string Id { get; set; }  
     [JsonProperty("Name")]  
     public string Name { get; set; }  
     [JsonProperty("Path")]  
     public string Path { get; set; }  
   }  
 }  

SSRS API v2 /Reports JSON Response:

JSON Deserialization with Newtonsoft.Json:

The deserial variable holds an in-memory .NET object of type APIGenericResponse, derived (deserialized) from the SSRS API JSON response

JSON Serialization with Newtonsoft.Json:

The serial variable is simply the serialization APIGenericItemsResponse object serialized into a JSON string

Reference: https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/Introduction.htm